What's the bottom line with shooting Starlings? Aren't they considered invasive? If you wanted to sit in your backyard adjoining woods....could you sit there with a pellet gun and legally pick them off? Legality of discharging? Limits? Seasons?......

I found this on the NYSDEC site:The few unprotected species include porcupine, red squirrel, woodchuck, English sparrow, starling, rock pigeon, and monk parakeet. Unprotected species may be taken at any time without limit.

Have a pal who has permission to hunt several farm's on the North fork. He invited me but I could not go. He hunt's them with 20ga. with mag extension and say's you can't load the gun fast enough. Poor mans dove hunt, but it sounds fun.

TomKat wrote:I don't know about inside city limits, but yes it is legal to shoot them. Same with English sparrows. Go to Youtube and search pelletgun starling.

City limits no...but I was thinking about plinking What about using light duck loads to pass shoot out of duck season?

BTW...what are you doing trolling the NY forum TK?? a splendid visit...

Slack,

By "plinking, I assume that you mean with a pellet gun and not a .22. I think you need to be a little careful with that, because even an air gun has the potential to be legally considered a rifle and would be illegal to use (with respect to the game laws) here on LI. Here's a quote from the DEC's web page

"(b) The term "airgun" shall mean any implement which by the force of a spring, air or other non-ignited compressed gas expels a missile or projectile and has a rifled or smooth barrel, using ammunition no smaller than .17 caliber, producing projectile velocities of not less than 600 feet per second. For the purposes of the Fish and Wildlife Law, an implement meeting the above specifications shall be considered a firearm or gun, and may be used to take protected wildlife whenever such protected wildlife may legally be taken with a rimfire rifle."

Of course, if the area you're in is legal to shoot a shotgun, break out the .410 and have a blast.

Frank

PS, if you know anyone who ties flies, they might be interested in a couple of the males.

I feel slightly sorry for a man who has never patterned his gun, who has no idea how far his chosen load will retain killing penetration. But I'm extremely sorry for the ducks he shoots at beyond the killing range of his gun and load - Bob Brister